New Year's Day – Mia McPherson's On The Wing Photography

Fun Drake Mallard At Bear River MBR

By Mia McPherson|January 4th, 2024|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Mallards, Utah|Tags: adult, Anas platyrhynchos, Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, breeding plumage, dabbling duck, drake, ducks, flight, flying, ice, lifting off, male, Mallard, mallards, marsh, New Year's Day, taking off, Utah, water, waterfowl, wetlands, winter|

On New Year's Day morning, I had fun photographing a drake Mallard from the auto tour loop of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as he lifted off from the marsh.

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Drake Northern Pintail At Bear River MBR On New Year’s Day

By Mia McPherson|January 3rd, 2024|Categories: Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Birds, Box Elder County, Northern Pintails, Utah|Tags: adult, Anas acuta, dabbling ducks, drake, duck, ducks, feathers, ice, male, marsh, morning, New Year's Day, Northern Pintail, pintail, pintails, shaking, standing, waterfowl, wetlands, winter|

I was thrilled to find and photograph a handsome drake Northern Pintail out on the auto tour loop of Bear River MBR on New Year's Day morning.

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Happy New Year’s Day 2021

By Mia McPherson|January 1st, 2021|Categories: Birds, Canada Geese, Pied-billed Grebes, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, bathing, Branta canadensis, Canada Geese, first bird, flight, flying, fog, geese, goose, grebe, grebes, low light, New Year's Day, photographed, Pied-billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, pond, seen, splashing, sunny, trees, urban, water, waterfowl, winter|

It is a chilly 29°F where I live in northern Utah on New Year's Day 2021 and from my living room window I can see that it is foggy outside.

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New Year’s Day Neotropic Cormorant Sighting

By Mia McPherson|January 2nd, 2019|Categories: Birds, Neotropic Cormorants, Ring-billed Gulls, Salt Lake County, Utah|Tags: adult, cormorant, cormorants, flight, gull, gulls, Larus delawarensis, late sighting, mountains, Nannopterum brasilianum, Neotropic Cormorant, New Year's Day, pond, Ring-billed Gull, Wasatch Mountains, winter|

What caught my eyes was that one of the cormorants was smaller, sleeker and darker than the other two birds and before I even scoped it through my lens I knew that I had found an out of season Neotropic Cormorant.

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